Around this time each year, journalists and historians dig into the archives to try to assign blame for Israel being unprepared, even as its leadership had the information it needed to know that war was looming. 

Israel ultimately won, and the lessons Israel learned made its leadership more able to protect the country, Yom Kippur War hero Avigdor Kahalani argued in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov last month, ahead of the 50th anniversary of the conflict, which began on Oct. 6, 1973.

Battle over the Golan: “I commanded a tank battalion in the Sinai,” Kahalani recalled. “On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, we were moved to the Golan Heights. We were there 10 days before because we were told there may be a war.” 

Within the first day of the war, “two-thirds of the Golan already wasn’t in our hands,” Kahalani recounted. “There were 130 tanks against us, and we had 10-12 tanks.” But within a few days, the much smaller Israeli force stopped the Syrians and more IDF tank and infantry units joined Kahalani to push the Syrians out of the Golan. 

“Many of my people were injured, but what mattered, the bottom line, is that we could stop the Syrian Army from completing its mission of conquering the Golan,” he said.

Breaking point: The Yom Kippur War is often cited as a breaking point in the trust Israelis had in the government, the IDF and their ability to protect them. “We learned from this war that we can’t assume that we are strong, so we can do anything,” Kahalani said. “We are strong — but the enemy has his own plans.”

Fast forward: Today, IDF reservists protesting against the current government and its judicial overhaul plans argue that they cannot trust the government if it sends them to war because of its political policies. “This cannot happen,” Kahalani said. “If you don’t like the government, you have to replace them in an election. You cannot replace a government by saying ‘I won’t serve.’ When the moment comes, you have to go and fight,” he emphasized.